News Archives
June 2006
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News Archives |
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June 2006 |
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June 30, 2006 |
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The official website by Media Asia has been updated with an overseas trailer. Check out TwitchFilm.net for more download options.
A large number of costumes and props, designed by Tim Yip, were exhibited at a movie theater in Shanghai during the Shanghai International Film Festival. The film was based on Hamlet and Yip's design looks somewhat Medieval European.
Click here for a three-part video taken at the exhibit. (click the numbers below the screen to select.)
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June 30, 2006 |
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Dreams May Come, a low budget drama by Xu Jinglei, Crazy Stone, a comedy produced by Andy Lau, 10 movies shot for celebrating the 85th year of Chinese Communist Party has entered Chinese theaters this week; and in Hong Kong the third installment of Love Undercover has opened for business.
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Jay Chou to Do a SLAM DUNK with Yao Ming (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) |
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June 30, 2006 |
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According to multiple sources, Taiwan-born pop singer Jay Chou has principally agreed to take the lead in Guan Lan (Slam Dunk) with Yao Ming making a cameo appearance. Produced by Taiwan's Chang-Hong Channel Film & Video Co. Ltd. and directed by Chu Yin-Ping, Slam Dunk is about an orphan, who grew up at Kung-Fu University (no kidding!), becomes a talented basketball player. Idea for this movie is actually inspired by the same-name Japanese manga series. Wu Dun, president of Chang-Hong, intents to make Slam Dunk a pure Taiwanese-made, has turned down a financial offer from a Hong Kong company and has asked the Taiwanese government to share the cost, which has soared to about US$10 million. (Good luck!) Wu said he would ask Korean singer BoA to play Jay Chou's girlfriend and the mainland Chinese partner just booked Yao Ming for one-day cameo shoot. As for the choreography, Wu has been in contact with Ching Siu-Tung (The Curse of Golden Flower, House of Flying Daggers, Hero). According to a press article released last November, the cast may also include Eric Tsang, Antony Wong, Ng Man-Tat, Wang Gang and Zhang Guoli. Hong Kong's Centro Digital (The Promise, Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer) is commissioned to do the CG effects. Shooting will begin sometime next year. Though tries to make it completely in Taiwan, Wu has said he may shoot some scenes in the mainland China because the leasing Taipei Arena would be too costly. |
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RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES North American Trailer (Apple.com) |
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June 29, 2006 |
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Sony Pictures Classics just put a QuickTime trailer of Zhang Yimou's Riding alone for Thousands of Miles on Apple.com. The date for a theatrical release is aimed at September 1, 2006. Released last December in China, this film's box-office revenue is the highest among all domestic made "artistic films." It tells a Japanese fisherman, who travels thousands of mile to the Chinese countryside to documenting a rare form of local opera for his ailing son, hoping to win back his son's heart. Sony Pictures Classics has just acquired the North and South American rights to Zhang Yimou's third period epic The Curse of Golden Flower, now in production in China.
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June 29, 2006 |
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Hong Kong's Oriental Daily and The Sun posted several pictures taken outside a local Buddhist temple, where Shang Cheng (literal: The Wounded City)'s the first day of production took place. Leung Chou-Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Chapman To showed up for the shoot but the female lead Shu Qi did not. Directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, who helmed the Infernal Affairs trilogy together, Shang Cheng tells that a high-ranking Hong Kong police officer (Leung Chiu-Wai) collaborates with a drug lord and another cop, or an ex-cop (Takeshi Kaneshiro), accidentally finds out his secret and decides to follow his every move, hoping to bust him somehow. Rumor says the role of the good cop was originally offered to Leung but he got obsessed with the role of the bad cop, which belonged to Kaneshiro. Leung asked for a role swap and then found out in the final draft of the script the good cop actually got more screen time, which makes Leung very upset.
Related story: Leung Chiu-Wai to Reunite with INFERNAL AFFAIRS Directors in THE WOUNDED CITY (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) June 16, 2006 |
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Simon Yam Turns down BOARDING GATE for To / Tsui / Lam Jigsaw Project (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) |
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June 29, 2006 |
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Hong Kong's Oriental Daily reports that Simon Yam has just turned down French director Olivier Assayas' offer of starring in his Boarding Gate and has joined the untilled upcoming Johnnie To / Tsui Hark / Ringo Lam thriller. Both movies will go into production next month and as Johnnie To's favorite leading man, Simon Yam cannot say no to the To / Tsui / Lam project. Olivier Assayas once thought he could shoot Boarding Gate partly in Hong Kong to enable Yam doing two projects simultaneously, but later he scraped the plan after falling to find a river in Hong Kong, suitable for the story. For the To / Tsui / Lam project, each director is solely responsible for about 30 minutes of the movie without telling anything to others and three 30 minute footages are pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle. Johnnie To told AFP, "Tsui Hark will first start shooting the film, then Ringo will look at the development of it before shooting the second part, and then I'll complete it with the third part." We do not know who else have joined the cast and we may not know what the thriller is talking about until it is released.
Related story: Johnnie To, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam to Make a Three-Piece Jigsaw Thriller (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) March 24, 2006 |
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Aidan Quinn Takes Val Kilmer's Role in DARK MATTER (Fat Dot) |
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June 29, 2006 |
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According to a press release article sent to me, Aidan Quinn will play Prof. Jacob Reiser, the role believed once belongs to Val Kilmer. Inspired by a true story, Dark Matter depicts the humor, frustration and heartbreak that results when different cultures collide and communication falters. The indie film follows the story of Liu Xing (Liu Ye), a brilliant Chinese science student, who strives to impress his mentor Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn) with his theories on the origins of the universe. Helping Liu Xing adapt but unable to protect him from academic politics are Joanna (Meryl Streep), a patron of the university with a passion for all things Chinese, and Hildy (Blair Brown), Reiser’s secretary.
Click here for the complete press release article
Related stories: Video: Liu Ye Shows His Life on DARK MATTER Set (Sina.com) June 21, 2006 (China News Agency) June 14, 2006 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) May 31, 2006Liu Ye Said He Is Still Attached to DARK MATTER (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) April 18, 2006More On Liu Ye and Meryl Streep's DARK MATTER (Variety / AFP) June 26, 2004 Liu Ye, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford In LIU XING (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) June 14, 2004 |
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SUMMER PALACE Goes to Toronto Fest without a Birth Certificate (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) |
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June 29, 2006 |
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Chinese director Lou Ye's Summer Palace is among 25 titles being booked by the Toronto International Film Festival. About two young lover's rollercoaster relationship against the backdrop of the drastically changing China from 1989 to 2000, Summer Palace premièred at this year's Cannes Film Festival without an official release certificate from the Chinese government. According to Beijing-based Laurel Films, one of the film's producing studios, the censorship authority was not satisfied by the quality of the beta copy of the film, submitted to it just one day before the film's scheduled world première in Cannes, and refused to watch it. However, it has be speculated that several scenes with nudity and sex as well as some content associated to the civil movement in 1989 are the major barriers for Summer Palace to get a clearance from the Chinese government. It is possible that the makers are still pushing for a release in China, but the authority may have already decided to ban it in China by not granting a release certificate, just like what it did to dozens of other Chinese films, like Zhang Yimou's To Live and Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Blue Kite. Since Summer Palace is a Chinese / French co-production, showing it outside of the mainland China is not affected by the ban. However, the Chinese makers of the film are facing severe punishment threatened by the Chinese officials. Laurel Films and director Lou Ye may be forbidden from making more movies.
Related stories: 'Babel,' 'Wind' top slots for Toronto fest, Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter Cannes winners to return to spotlight at Toronto film fest, CBC (Thanks to "Nick")
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June 28, 2006 |
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From the original designs by Jean Giraud (The Fifth Element, The Abyss, Alien) to the completed film: A kitchen inside King Tor's castle
The final version of The Moebius Strip is about 90 minute long, with about one hour footage being left out. The deleted opening was made into a near three minute short film titled Homeland and then became the Best Animation Feature for Commercial / Educational Purpose at the 2nd China International Cartoon and Animation Festival ended last month. Story of this short is that the earth suffers a doomsday destruction and the survivors begin searching for a new home. As the first Chinese made full-length 3D animation, The Moebius Strip has be set for a theatrical release in China this August. Despite being in development for about seven years, it has yet made a sale in the international market.
Click here for stills from the animated short.
Related stories: THRU THE MOEBIUS STRIP Pix (Sina.com) June 12, 2006 THRU THE MOEBIUS STRIP International Trailer (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) June 10, 2006 May 5, 2006Thru the Moebius Strip – A Chinese Dream of Pixel (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) October 20, 2005 |
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June 27, 2006 |
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Someone known as kingtonj uploaded a 2:46 long trailer to YouTube, claiming it was just released during the Shanghai International Film Festival. TwitchFilm.net discovered it first, by the way.
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Stephen Chow to Start Making THE ALIENS Next Month?(MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) |
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June 27, 2006 |
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Chinese newspaper Hangzhou Daily reports Stephen Chow will start directing and staring in his new film, working-titled Wai Xing Ren (The Aliens) next month in Ningbo city. In the sci-fi flick, Chow will play a Chinese astronaut who accidentally lands on an alien planet. He then becomes some sort of father figure of an alien boy with help from a female android, who is capable of communicating with the aliens.
Related story: Stephen Chow Postpones KUNG FU HUSTLE 2 for a Space Adventure (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) April 16, 2006 |
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